faces of the heavens: astrological image magic in early ... · nature and astrological image magic...
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Faces of the Heavens:
Nature and Astrological Image Magic
in Early Modern England
Alexander Cummins
Early Modern English Context
• Agriculture: election, talismans
• Propaganda: news, analysis
• Medicine: diagnostics, treatment
Historiography
Astrological Sources
John Tanner, Angelus
Britannicus (London, 1658)
William Lilly, Christian
Astrology (London, 1647)
Handbooks Almanacs Physick
Heinrich Cornelius
Agrippa von Nettesheim,
Three Books of Occult
Philosophy (London,
1651)
Magic
Joseph Blagrave,
Astrological
Practice of
Physick ((London,
1671)
Magical Principles
Organisational
Elements
Planets
Signs
Houses
Mansions
Decans
Operational
Reflection
Exposure
Contagion
Sympathy/Antipathy
Similitude
Names
Sigils
Israel Hiebner, Mysterium Sigillorum,
Herbarum & Lapidum (London, 1698), p. 165
Paracelsus Of The Supreme Mysteries of
Nature, trans. Robert Turner (London, 1655),
p. 140
Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 407
Images
‘…for the increase of the fruits
of the earth, and against
poysons, and infirmities of
children… the figure of which
was a woman cornuted, riding
on a Bull, or a Dragon… or a
Crab; and she hath in her right
hand a dart…’
‘It is a certain
Remedy to drive
away all Flies
from the Bed
where it is
hanged.’
‘The first face of
Taurus ascendeth…
Harvester or
Husbandman, and
goeth forth to sow,
plough, build,
people, and divide…
the earth…’
How Images Work
• Virtue for power source
• Similitude for representation
• Contagion for deployment
• Spirits for conjuring and operating
• Sympathy/Antipathy for drawing/warding
How To Make Images
• Election in timing
• Sympathy in materials
• Exposure in deploying
Construction: Planetary Materia
Saturn – Lead
Jupiter – Tin
Mars - Iron
Sol – Gold
Venus – Copper
Mercury – Alloys
Moon - Silver
Consecration: Suffumigations
Saturn – Roots
Jupiter – Fruits
Mars - Woods
Sol – Resins
Venus – Flowers
Mercury – Peels & Seeds
Moon - Leaves
Consecration: Suffumigations
William Lilly, Christian Astrology, p. 75
Locative Exposure
‘...they that endeavour to procure love, are wont to bury for a certain time the instruments of their art, whether they be rings, images, looking glasses, or any other, to hide them in a stewhouse [brothel], because in that place they will contract some venereal faculty, no otherwise than things that stand in stinking places, become stinking, and those in an aromatical place, become aromatical, and of a sweet savour.’
Agrippa, Three Books, p. 144
Locative Exposure
Martial
William Lilly, Christian Astrology, p. 68, 64
Jovial
An Image of Venus
‘They made another Image of Venus, the first face
of Taurus or Libra or Pisces ascending with Venus,
the figure of which was a little maide with her hair
spread abroad, cloathed in long and white
garments, holding a Laurell[,] Apple, or flowers in
her right hand, in her left a Combe. Its reported to
make men pleasant, jocand, strong, chearfull and
to give beauty.’
Agrippa, Three Books, p. 387
Laurel…
Solar and Jovial
Martial
(Anti-)Saturnine
‘…resisteth Witchcraft very potently, as also all the evil old Saturn can do…’
Culpeper, English Physition, p. 12
…and Apple
Venusian and Jovial
‘…the sweet Apples as the Pippin and Pearmain, help to dissolve Melancholly humors, and to procure Mirth…’
Culpeper, English Physition, p. 5.
Conclusions
• Representational magic used similitude, sympathy, and signature
• Astrological images require the use of natural materia magica
• Astrology didn’t just point to things happening on the earth; the earth pointed back
